Hey, what's up, motivators Taren here.
Almost every single runner that I see getting into running makes a lot
of the same mistakes that cause them to have a higher likelihood of injury
and be less likely to actually reach their run goals.
Be it just be able to run for a long
period of time or prepare for a race for whatever your goals are.
These are the five biggest training mistakes almost all beginner runners make
that prevent them from reaching their goals.
When regular people want to do something
personally amazing in an endurance event, they use motive training plans.
Whether you're just getting started or
you've done several events and want a little more structure to step up your
game, we know what it takes to get amateurs to their goals.
No matter how big or small, you can accomplish anything you want.
You just need a plan designed
for the unique needs of people with families, jobs, and a busy life.
The motive training method is that plan to get you to the start line feeling
confident, and across the finish line feeling strong.
The first thing I see preventing runners
from reaching their goals is what happens in those first few runs.
And it's not starting with a run walk program.
When people first start getting
into running, it's very, very difficult on the body.
Every single foot strike leads to seven
to eight times of your total body weight being pounded into your structure.
This is a lot for your body to handle,
and it's a lot for your body to learn to adapt to.
Going out and expecting yourself to be able to run right from the hop all the way
to the end of every single run is just asking a lot of your body.
Even if it does feel okay to do, it's not something you want to place as
a load on your body starting from scratch, you want to ease into the run.
So whether you have a very hard time
running or a very easy time running, starting with a run walk program is
something that all beginner runners should do.
It's something that even seasoned athletes like Prototyping Ben Knot does.
He'll often do run walk programs just to reduce the load on his body.
So if he can do it, why can't all beginner runners?
When you're starting out, the best thing to do is to start off
with whatever you're able to run continuously in about a one to four minute
time range and start with about a one to three run to walk ratio.
So if you can run for 1 minute, walk for three minutes,
and then every single run, increase the running by about 30 seconds
and decrease the amount of rest by about 30 seconds.
And within about five to six weeks, you're going to be running continuously.
You're going to do so with a very light load on your body that your body is going
to be able to adapt to without encountering injury.
The second problem that I see beginner
runners encounter in their training plan is that they just do too much too soon.
Endurance in your heart and lungs
and the ability to be able to run for a long period of time without stopping
actually builds up very quick in your body.
But the muscles and tendons and ligaments and all of the structure of the body takes
a much, much longer time to actually build up that durability.
So quite often what happens with beginner runners is they feel like they can run,
so they go out and start running very long distances, not knowing that it might take
their tendons and ligaments and musculoskeletal structure as much as
six to eight months to adapt to a running load.
So they very often start feeling banged
up, feeling sore, and encountering an injury, setting themselves back.
In order to avoid this, within the first six months of taking up
running, do less than you think you need to to reach your goals.
Hold yourself back intentionally,
feel almost guilty for not working harder, and this is going to give your body a lot
of time to build up the strength in order to be able to handle that pounding.
The third thing that almost every single beginner runner does once they are able
to start running for an extended period of time is they run too hard.
Athletes, left up to their own devices, will almost always run at a pace
that feels steady, comfortable, that is challenging enough to feel like
exercise, but not so challenging that it's difficult to do for a long period of time.
This is otherwise known as zone three training, or threshold training.
This type of training is actually very detrimental to the body to do day
in and day out because it's past the aerobic threshold,
at which point you start accumulating a lot of lactic acid in your body.
And this increases the amount of stress hormones that start coursing through your
veins, causing your body to actually deteriorate and not be able to perform
well in races or perform well in the days when you want to push hard.
Instead, what you should be doing about 75% to 80% of the time is running under
your zone two threshold or under your aerobic threshold.
And we'll link to a video at the end of this video where you can understand
exactly how to set up your zone two running.
We want to spend most of your runs under
this threshold heart rate that's going to allow your body to be clear of most
of the stress hormones so that when you have a fast run day.
You can actually push really. Really hard.
Which is going to make those fast runs much more effective.
And it's going to make the rest of your runs such a positive enhancing effect
on your body as opposed to this corrosive effect on the body.
The fourth thing which is related
to the third point is that most athletes get into a single speed of running.
If you encounter most running groups out
there in the world, their hard days are going to be maybe only
about 15 to 20 seconds faster than their slow days.
The difference between the fast and slow
running should be as much as 90 seconds/km or two minutes per mile.
The hard run should be very challenging
and have really fast intervals, and the easy run should be very easy.
Quite often what happens with elite runners when they join a new local running
program with casual amateur runners, as they find that they can't actually run
with the amateur runners even though they're an elite runner.
The reason for this is that the elite
runners tend to run their easy runs even slower than the amateur runners,
and they'll now run their hard and fast runs much faster than the amateur runners.
This is called polarized training
and study after study after study has shown that this is the best way to be
healthy and the best way to reach your goals and enhance performance.
Even if your goal is just to finish, this is the best way to do it.
The fifth and final training mistake
that beginner runners make is not running trails.
Very often, a higher proportion of runtime
spent on trails, as opposed to running on concrete and cement,
has been associated with a decreased likelihood of injury.
The reason for this is that running
on trails forces your body to adapt in all different ranges of motion.
All the little micro movements and the micro stability movements that you
have to actually perform while running across all of those trails taren all
causing your body to be stronger and more ranges of motion.
You're more stable, you're more adapt, you have more proprioception,
more body awareness, whereas running on concrete in a straight
line is really just one plane over and over and over.
So your body tends to atrophy in all of the different ranges of motion that it
needs to encounter to be a well rounded athlete.
Running on trails is also very strength focused.
It allows your body to build up muscular endurance, so it's going to be less likely
to tire towards the end of any event that you want to take on.
So you're going to slow down quite a bit
less when you get into those goal races that you might take on.
So whether it's for health or
for performance, running on trails is going to lead to a better outcome.
So hopefully you found this helpful if you're just getting into running.
If you do want to dive into getting your
training dialed in by using heart rate and particularly using Zone Two running
to run slow in order to get faster, there is a video up on the screen that is
our complete steps by step beginner's guide to getting into Zone two running,
which is going to allow you to run easier and perform better later.
Motivators.